S
Spriter1
Hello,
I have had to replace my Vaillant 824/2E boiler as it was written off due to a leaking combustion door seal. It seems this was subject of some sort of recall but was only done if someone serviced the boiler. Even in their words they only "recommend" someone does a yearly service so they are acknowledging nothing may be done on this seal if the owner chooses not to service, the consequence of what could have been quite serious. I never bother getting the boiler serviced but every year I do get a gas safe certificate as it is in a rented property. I would have thought as part of that this recall should have been addressed. My concern is that Vaillant are negligent in not informing me directly of this design error. They had my address with which they could have done this as I had many mail shots trying to get me to extend the warranty etc etc. Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do now, try Vaillant again, write to Gas Safe, an ombudsman ?! get a solicitor involved etc etc ?! Vaillant's reply is as below;
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Thank you for your email dated 16[SUP]th[/SUP] February 2016, the contents of which I regret to note.
Firstly, please accept my apologies for the delay in my response.
I am very sorry to learn of the problems that you have experienced. Please let me assure you that Vaillant manufacture some of the most reliable and efficient products on the market and the model that you have selected has proven very reliable in the field.
After checking our records I can see that our engineers have never visited your property therefore we have never seen your appliance in situ. It is therefore difficult for us to offer an explanation for the problems that you have experienced.
Your appliance was supplied with a two year warranty from the date of installation in order to protect against any defects relating to manufacture. We would expect any defects that arise as a result of manufacture would become apparent either immediately upon installation or within this time.
In regards to the combustion chamber door seal there has been a product improvement to the seal between the burner plate and the heat exchanger. This seal was originally made of a silicon material and as such the service manuals recommended that it should be inspected during the annual service and was to be replaced when any signs of wear are noted.
Since April 2006, the seal has been made of a new material (graphite) which has several significant benefits, the main benefit being that the graphite seal does not need periodic replacement at the time of normal annual servicing unlike the original silicon seal. Indeed, it is only necessary to replace the seal when the burner door is removed for other maintenance actions.
Furthermore, the issue with the ecoTEC burner door seal was communicated to 45,500 installers through the CORGI bulletin TB196 (Now Gas Safe Register bulletin TB098). During this free-of-charge rework activity we reworked nearly 56,000 products and issued over 14,000 free graphite seals for our installation customers to retrofit during service activities.
The additional Installer-focussed activity we have conducted up until December 2010, where we issued a service reminder via Gas Safe Register (TB078), to remind installers of the necessity of regular servicing, and the potential for deterioration of the combustion chamber seal on older appliances if servicing is not carried out. To support our customers we continued to provide free of charge graphite seals.
As per our manufacturers instructions we recommend our appliances are maintained and serviced annually. It is noted from checking our records it does not appear we have regularly serviced the appliance further to this if it has been serviced by a local Gas Safe registered engineer we would have expected the seal to have been replaced by now.
If you would like for one of our engineers to visit your property and inspect your appliance this can be arranged however as your appliance is now outside of the manufacturers warranty period any visit would be on a chargeable basis. Accordingly I regret that we are unable to contribute toward your costs on this occasion.
To arrange a visit on this basis, please contact our Service Department on 01773 828100.
Whilst I understand that the contents of this email may be of some disappointment to you, I trust that the above clarifies matters and regret that I am unable to write more favourably on this occasion.
Yours sincerely
I have had to replace my Vaillant 824/2E boiler as it was written off due to a leaking combustion door seal. It seems this was subject of some sort of recall but was only done if someone serviced the boiler. Even in their words they only "recommend" someone does a yearly service so they are acknowledging nothing may be done on this seal if the owner chooses not to service, the consequence of what could have been quite serious. I never bother getting the boiler serviced but every year I do get a gas safe certificate as it is in a rented property. I would have thought as part of that this recall should have been addressed. My concern is that Vaillant are negligent in not informing me directly of this design error. They had my address with which they could have done this as I had many mail shots trying to get me to extend the warranty etc etc. Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do now, try Vaillant again, write to Gas Safe, an ombudsman ?! get a solicitor involved etc etc ?! Vaillant's reply is as below;
***************************************************************************
Thank you for your email dated 16[SUP]th[/SUP] February 2016, the contents of which I regret to note.
Firstly, please accept my apologies for the delay in my response.
I am very sorry to learn of the problems that you have experienced. Please let me assure you that Vaillant manufacture some of the most reliable and efficient products on the market and the model that you have selected has proven very reliable in the field.
After checking our records I can see that our engineers have never visited your property therefore we have never seen your appliance in situ. It is therefore difficult for us to offer an explanation for the problems that you have experienced.
Your appliance was supplied with a two year warranty from the date of installation in order to protect against any defects relating to manufacture. We would expect any defects that arise as a result of manufacture would become apparent either immediately upon installation or within this time.
In regards to the combustion chamber door seal there has been a product improvement to the seal between the burner plate and the heat exchanger. This seal was originally made of a silicon material and as such the service manuals recommended that it should be inspected during the annual service and was to be replaced when any signs of wear are noted.
Since April 2006, the seal has been made of a new material (graphite) which has several significant benefits, the main benefit being that the graphite seal does not need periodic replacement at the time of normal annual servicing unlike the original silicon seal. Indeed, it is only necessary to replace the seal when the burner door is removed for other maintenance actions.
Furthermore, the issue with the ecoTEC burner door seal was communicated to 45,500 installers through the CORGI bulletin TB196 (Now Gas Safe Register bulletin TB098). During this free-of-charge rework activity we reworked nearly 56,000 products and issued over 14,000 free graphite seals for our installation customers to retrofit during service activities.
The additional Installer-focussed activity we have conducted up until December 2010, where we issued a service reminder via Gas Safe Register (TB078), to remind installers of the necessity of regular servicing, and the potential for deterioration of the combustion chamber seal on older appliances if servicing is not carried out. To support our customers we continued to provide free of charge graphite seals.
As per our manufacturers instructions we recommend our appliances are maintained and serviced annually. It is noted from checking our records it does not appear we have regularly serviced the appliance further to this if it has been serviced by a local Gas Safe registered engineer we would have expected the seal to have been replaced by now.
If you would like for one of our engineers to visit your property and inspect your appliance this can be arranged however as your appliance is now outside of the manufacturers warranty period any visit would be on a chargeable basis. Accordingly I regret that we are unable to contribute toward your costs on this occasion.
To arrange a visit on this basis, please contact our Service Department on 01773 828100.
Whilst I understand that the contents of this email may be of some disappointment to you, I trust that the above clarifies matters and regret that I am unable to write more favourably on this occasion.
Yours sincerely
